Saturday, 31 January 2015

Sadly we can't always be in Paris. But sometimes we are in Melbourne. Recently I discovered that sometimes you can have a Paris day in Melbourne. And on my last day in Melbourne in December I did exactly that.

There were rather strong hints of Paris there too of course. I think it was here that I recognised my Paris themed day.

I'd barely had anything to eat for hours by this stage. Luckily I had a pre-theater booking at Bistro Guillaume. Where I adopted my Parisian strategy of eating salmon tartare so that I could yet again fit in more pudding.

Then I had to hightail it back across town. It's always easy to pretend on the Paris end of Collins Street.

The Hermes window

I was heading for Her Majesty's Theatre to see Les Mis. I'd seen the production the night before. It was spine tingling, and I was moved to become a snivelling wreck. It was so good in fact that I went again the very next night.

I resisted the merchandise.
I need to read the book.

After the show it was back to Om Nom. I know, I know, I didn't intend to, really I didn't. But their Mont Blanc is devastatingly good. I had almost burst into tears to find it wasn't available at lunch. It was my last day in Melbourne for who knows how long. My waiter promised me it would be available in the evening after my show. Thankfully It was. OMG. It's so good.

But I knew that. I'd had it before as part of their fantastic dessert degustations twice previously. I've shown you that before (and the price went down! Now $48. Total bargain). But I really wanted to have a single serve. It's apparently based on the Mont Blanc at the Ritz Paris. Bet you can't guess where I want to go now? Sadly the Ritz Paris has been closed for unprecedented renovations since 2012, and is currently due to reopen late 2015.

I wonder if the Ritz version could be better than this?
It's hard to believe. It's perfection.

Whilst this day does possibly seem slightly extravagant I did crisscross the length and breadth of Melbourne CBD on foot at least 4 times, and had the blisters to prove it. I think I earnt all those puddings... A perfect Melbourne finale. Melbourne wasn't Paris that day, but it was pretty darn close.

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

Sometimes you don't remember how you heard about a particular book, sometimes you do. I first heard about Cinnamon Rain when I read Brona's review back in 2012. Sadly, I don't think I've seen it blogged anywhere since, although Buzzfeed did recently include it in their list of 27 Awesome Australian Books Every YA Fan Should Read. But I remembered it, and was keen to read it still, and recently I picked up a copy at my library.

Cinnamon Rain is an excellent novel, that just happens to be in verse. I'm so glad that Steven Herrick taught me to read verse novels last year. It has really opened up the format for me. Previously I would have rejected it simply because it was a verse novel. Now, I'm becoming bolder, reading verse novels by different authors- and really enjoying them. I don't think that there's been one that I haven't liked so far.

Cinnamon Rain tells the story of six friends as they traverse the last 2-3 years of high school. The story is of the six friends, but told in the voice of just three- Luke, Casey and Bongo. The six are growing up in the fictitious Australian coastal town of Pebble Beach. These kids are facing much bigger problems than I ever have. Domestic violence, drug abuse, first loves, family breakdown and homelessness all whilst trying to finish up at school and work out what to do with their lives.

The he goes off
to buy some leaf
so he can get bombed.
I used to think
the reason he doped up
was to stop himself sinking
in all the pain.
Now,
I think that clouding the pain
is what's making him sink.

Emma Cameron has done a great job capturing this often difficult transitional time in the life of our young people. Their school life, family circumstances and friends all impact on the direction they take and whether they succeed or not. As a parent reading Cinnamon Rain it's often so painful watching several terrible parents set up their children to fail. Perhaps some of them don't do it intentionally, but it seems some of them do. The adults don't come out of things too well actually- of course some of them are normal parents, working and doing their best by their family, but others are making terrible choices that are played out on their children's lives.

Cinnamon Rain is published as Out of This Place overseas. Rather incredibly Cinnamon Rain was Emma Cameron's debut novel, it was a CBCA Notable Book for Older Readers 2013. I hope it continues to be read far into the future.

Monday, 26 January 2015

I don't join in all that many reading challenges, as my 1001 quest does take up most of my available reading time. But I do have somewhat of an ongoing fascination with Paris and all things French, so it makes sense to join in with French Bingo 2015 run by Emma at Words and Peace.

Emma has been running French Reading Challenges for a few years now, and I've been joining in when I can. It was very exciting for me to win the prize draw for contributors last year- that book will be one of my reviews this year of course.

For 2015 Emma has made us a Bingo Challenge.

I'm not sure where it will take me just yet. I will list my books here as I read them. And link to my review page.

I can't quite remember how I learned that my library had an audiobook version of Honeymoon in Paris, but very soon after I had borrowed it and planned to listen to it while driving back home from Sydney. Never mind that Honeymoon in Paris is a prequel to a book that I haven't read (or really heard of) The Girl You Left Behind. I had a notion that Jo Joy Moyes writes romance/chick lit neither of which are my ususal reading fare, but if you stick a big Eiffel Tower on the cover of pretty much anything then I'll have a look at it.

Honeymoon in Paris is two intertwined stories of honeymooning couples separated in time. Sophie and Edouard are French newlyweds in 1912, while 90 years later in 2002 British newlyweds Liv and David make their way to Paris for their honeymoon. Both marriages have their own teething problems, and both couples their own insecurities.

I did enjoy Honeymoon in Paris, despite my reservations. The 2 1/2 hours of audio CD was a perfect diversion for my drive home. The Parisian setting naturally enough was wonderful. The story starts atop the Eiffel Tower, and takes in the Musee d'Orsay, rue Soufflot, Pont des Arts and the chocolates of Patrick Roger. Naturally I am familiar with all of these.

The narration was problematic at times, they appear to have used two native English speaking actors for the voices, which is fine for Liv who speaks in English with occasional attempts at French.

Even when she employs her best French accent, the waiters still invariably answer in English.

Oh haven't we all been there?

But Sophie's chapters are done with an outrageous French accent, which is often quite patchy. The accent did become a distraction at times. Still Honeymoon in Paris made a pleasant change from the loud 70s music that often accompanies me on long distance driving. I may just take a look at The Girl You Left Behind sometime.

Saturday, 24 January 2015

I always manage to take in some art when I'm in Melbourne, and my last trip in December was no exception. I went to the absolutely incredible Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. On the way there I had time to scoot through the Mambo exhibition at theAustralian NGV at Federation Square.

This exhibition is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mambo. Mambo is such an iconic brand, immediately recognisable to Australians. Well known for their distinctive designs on t-shirts and clothing, Mambo is actually much more than that. Posters, art works, statuary and surfboards make for a colourful, fun exhibition.

I just love the couch surfboard
The Endless Sofa
commissioned by David Jones

The Emperor

Original artist sketches

I find it incredible that Mambo has worked with over 250 visual and graphic artists over the past 30 years, and yet they have a single, recognisable, cohesive identity and style.

You've got to love magpie and sprinkler boardies

Mambo have never been afraid of the political

Rednecks Tshirt 1998
raised $110,000 for Aboriginal causes

Or the fun

I wish I'd had one of these
it would have been one of my most treasured
tshirts ever...

Friday, 23 January 2015

Isn't that cover gorgeous?
It's gorgeous.
I hope the cover wins a prize.

Is it wrong to be somewhat thankful for a racist gaffe? I know it is. But it was lucky for me in a way that Daniel Handler made a racist remark to Jacqueline Woodson at the National Book Awards, otherwise without the ensuing controversy I may never have heard of this remarkable book, or ever read it. For Brown Girl Dreaming is an extraordinary read. You can read Jacqueline Woodson's powerful response to Daniel Handler in the New York Times here.

Brown Girl Dreaming is a remarkable memoir told in verse (yes, again with the verse novel for me) that blends slavery, race, history politics, geography and the familial/personal from the very first page.

I am born not long from the time
or far from the place
where
my great-great-grandparents
worked the deep rich land
unfree
dawn till dusk
unpaid
drank cool water from scooped-out gourds
looked up and followed
they sky's mirrored constellation
to freedom.

I am born as the South explodes,
too many people too many years
enslaved, then emancipated
but not free

I was surprised to read on page 3 that Jacqueline's parents race was recorded on her birth certificate. That is not something I've come across in Australia or New Zealand, either with relatively modern certificates or older ones that I have found in family history research. In some ways I can see that as just another piece of information like eye colour or height, but it's interesting that it's there in the first place. Race is still far from a perfect issue in Australia, but it is quite a different experience to that of America.

Brown Girl Dreaming weaves a family memoir set against the turbulent political times of the 60s and 70s, with Jacqueline's clear attraction to words, writing and story from a very young age. She is a slow reader even so.

I am not my sister.
Words from the books curl around each other
make little sense
until
I read them again
and again, the story
settling into memory

But even then she recognises the lack of children who look like her in books.

If someone had been fussing with me
to read like my sister, I might have missed
the picture book filled with brown people, more
brown people than I'd ever seen
in a book before.

Another thing that was surprising to my Australian self was her repeated use of the term brown people. It's in the title, it's repeated throughout the book. I'm not sure at all of why brown is used in preference to black, if that is significant, or if either term would have different racial overtones in the US.

Jacqueline Woodson is an accomplished author who has written many books for children and young people. I hadn't heard of her before she won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature 2014, but after Brown Girl Dreaming I'm definitely looking forward to reading more of her work. I'll be donating my copy of Brown Girl Dreaming to my local library in the hope that it will be more widely read here. It deserves to be.

Thursday, 22 January 2015

Good Reading is probably my favourite magazine. I buy lots of other magazines of course, but this one I actually read from cover to cover each month, and then reread them when I find them languishing about the house somewhere. There are always many intriguing new books reviewed, and fascinating bookish articles.

Back in September 2014 they published this great list of Cracker Jack Kids Books, highlighting 25 of the best Australian kids books from the last 45 years. As with all things we Aussies don't mind claiming good things that could probably be construed as being from New Zealand.

Wednesday, 21 January 2015

I received this book half way through last year, and while I'm always sorely tempted by a new Jackie French, I must admit that the Shakespearean content put me off for a while. Too long as it turns out, I should have trusted Jackie, her skill and judgement to make Shakespeare readable. Even for me. I'm no Shakespearean scholar, but I do go and see the touring company of Bell Shakespeare each year (and sometimes I understand it), but it's not a format that I'm drawn to.I am Juliet is an amazing first person account from young Juliet Capulet herself. Within pages I was in the thrall of Juliet's world. Juliet is a lonely young girl, cared for by servants, being educated as befitting a young lady of her station, her parents distant. It's a beautiful evocation of the time.

No father would employ a young dancing master for his daughter, but Master Dance looked as if he were made of sawdust, so old a breeze would blow him back to dust. His legs were like a sparrow's in his cotton stockings.

Juliet faces all the same troubles as any teenager, she is looking for a sense of self in her life even though she is about to be married off at 13.

I would be my father's daughter and my husband's wife. But Juliet, who was she? A person as insubstantial as our shadows on the wall.

The major events of Juliet's love for Romeo are well known by many of us- their story has been told in many ways over time- the play, movies and paintings document their story, but this in no way detracts from Jackie French's story of Juliet. I've only ever seen the play once I think, and quite some time ago at that. Perhaps I should watch the recent(ish) movie version, I don't think I ever got to watching it.There are over 30 pages of author's notes at the end of the book where Jackie expands on many of the themes of the story and where she is able to tell of the broader historical context of both Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet. There are many fascinating aspects to both, and to the history of I am Juliet itself. Jackie was inspired to take on I am Juliet after talking to some high school students who were studying Romeo and Juliet, and hating it. (In her Acknowledgements Jackie says that she didn't realise how ambitious a task she was taking on until she was well into it!) Those students complained about "All those words".

This books cuts down those words, leaving only those spoken by Juliet or in Juliet's presence, as the story is told from her point of view. Even those words have been cut back a little in places, or clarified-

I'm sure those students would have loved Jackie's version to help ease their entry into the often terrible world of studying Shakespeare at high school. I certainly know that I would have enjoyed her version of Henry IV Part I much more than the original.I continue to be astonished at Jackie French's prodigious output, and the quality of her writing, and her stories. (Check out her latest catalogue) Her scope is so varied- I don't know that there are too many topics, formats or genres that she hasn't pursued, and the books keep coming, despite the fact that she is our current Australian Children's Laureate. She is seemingly indefatigable.And yet there are even more books on the way. There are at least two more books in this Shakespearean series coming soon, Ophelia Queen of Denmark due out July this year, and Third Witch due out next year. Jackie also another great sounding, completely separate series of books starting later this month with Birrung The Secret Friend.The lovely folks at Harper Collins sent me a review copy of I am Juliet.

Monday, 19 January 2015

I saw this book around and about a bit on a few blogs last year. Naturally as soon as I saw it in a shop I snatched it from the shelf and brought it home. I didn't even open it in the shop, I just paid for it and brought it home. I assumed I'd love it. After all, it's perfect for me, right? Sadly not. I bought it before I set off to Paris in October. I got about half way through and then moved on to other things while I was away. I got back to finishing it recently.The thing is I really don't know how to take it. The back cover blurb proclaims it "Very, very funny". Inside the dust jacket it's a "fun and spirited take on what it really means to be a Parisienne in the 21st Century". Well that may be, but I still don't understand it. First gripe, why not call the book How to be Parisienne? This is indeed what it is about.It is also "often contradictory". Perhaps a book written by 4 people will always turn out as a bit of a melange?On the very first page of text. Aphorisms. To be read out loud every night before going to bed. Even when inebriated:

Find "your" perfume before you turn thirty. Wear it for the next thirty years.

Really? Don't change your perfume for 30 years? This is the best advice 4 stylish young Parisiennes can give me?

This can be the only plausible explanation for whyevery French Pharmacie window is full of 4711 and Yardley

Parisiennes it seems don't like to wear too much makeup (which is odd really, because where are all the big makeup houses?), to die their hair (unless it's to your natural colour, and to cover grey), hair clips are definitely a mistake if you are over 18, and they definitely don't like botox.

Sure, some women sometimes master the art of Botox, but most of the time, let's be honest: instead of a face free of wrinkles, what you really see is the face of fear.

Clearly they think about skin more than I do- beauty is epidermal- and they may have a bathroom full of skin creams, but I do like this advice.

Enjoy the face you have today. It's the one you'll wish you have ten years from now.

Disappointingly there is no list of the creams of wonderment considered essential in any Parisienne's bathroom cabinet. However, there is a nice selection of movies set in Paris for whenever we need a quick Paris pick me up.And smoking. Really girls. Give up the fags if you're so worried about the epidermis.

I'm not sure how to this photo is meant, but it just looks ugly to poor old Anglophone me.

There are some parts I really like though. And I think our guides to la vie Parisienne, do best on matters of style and taste rather than when they take on life more generally.Learning that YSL invented black.There are several sections of recipes. I'm tempted by the Ile Flottante, but not so much by the pea and carrot soup made by jazzing up a tin of peas and carrots with wasabi.The surprising collection of English words used in French, and French words used in English.My favourite page gives the universal advice to take the time.

Take the time to talk to the elderly lady next door, to read a book, to walk to work instead of riding the subway when it's a beautiful day. Take the time to escape for a weekend with friends.

Our authors tell us that asking someone at a party what they do for a living is a faux pas. I've read this before, a number of times. It seems odd, but I'm beginning to understand that it's a thing for the French. I wonder what they talk about instead?And yes sometimes, I do get the humour.

The Parisienne lives by only one sound: that of her heels clicking on the pavement, it's the metronome of her days.